Black Hippy

One way to entrench yourself into immortality in the rap game is by flexing your lyrical muscle. That means by spewing flawless bars at any given moment. Only a selected few have the extra chromosome within their bodies to possess such an innate gift...

My Own Lane It took two years of waiting in the wings and watching his TDE labelmates soar on the charts for Ab-Soul to deliver a new album. Is it finally his time to step into the spotlight? Words Dan Rys Images Tom Medvedich Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the August/September 2014 issue of XXL Magazine. T...

For years, fans have salivated over the idea of Black Hippy releasing a group project. While they have admitted on countless occasions that an album was merely a pipe-dream, Ab-Soul did have some interesting things to say about his group...

Previously: XXL Presents…The 25 Greatest XXL Freshmen Collaborations Check Out All Our Freshmen 2014 Coverage Right Here

The Black Hippy Album could be coming soon, but might have to wait until after Kendrick Lamar drops his new album. While at New York premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 MTV caught up with the good kid, m.A.A.d city rapper and here’s what he said. "Yeah, Blac...

TDE Cali Christmas by YardieGoals Last night TDE performed at Power 106's Cali Christmas show in Los Angeles, where Kendrick Lamar spoke on J. Cole and the Grammys, which streamed online. Today the full performance is available featuring Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul and Jay Rock...

Black Hippy performed at Power 106's Cali Christmas concert in Los Angeles last night—where Diddy also hopped on stage and performed with them—and before they went on stage the radio station caught up with Kendrick Lamar about his recent Grammy nominations. Kendrick i...

Ed. Note: The following interview with Ab-Soul and Jay Rock is pulled from the outtakes from XXL's TDE cover story in our upcoming Oct/Nov issue.  There was no real rhyme or reason to how we grabbed the members of TDE for conversations during the photo shoot for our Oct/Nov cover story. We pulle...

Ed. Note: The following interview with Terrence "Punch" Henderson is pulled from the outtakes from XXL‘s TDE cover story in our upcoming Oct/Nov issue.  While Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith is the namesake and visionary behind the growing Top Dawg Ent. empire, it's T...

Ed. Note: The following interview with Kendrick Lamar is pulled from the outtakes from XXL's TDE cover story in our upcoming Oct/Nov issue.  When XXL sat down with Kendrick Lamar for his third appearance on the cover of the magazine, things had changed from when he appeared as part of 2011's Freshman Class. Hell, ma...

Last night's BET Hip-Hop Awards cypher appearance from XXL cover-stars highlighted something we've know for a while: TDE has incredible rappers and they sound incredible together. The interplay between the group last night—the nods, the glances, yep, the high-five—was part of what made the cypher so special. These guys...

Imagine a hip-hop song without a single ad-lib, just straight rhyming for three minutes and 30 seconds without a single pause for a laugh or a cool catch phrase. Sounds pretty uneventful, right? Ad-libs are as much a fiber in the fabric of rap as the actual rapping itself...